Associated Press Mobile News Network’s incredible growth

The Associated Press Mobile News Network released the statistics for the month of August last week. Needless to say, the numbers are quite big. Let’s take a look.

1. The mobile news network got more than 16 million page views for the month of August.

2. 948 news organizations have signed up so far with the Mobile News Network to provide content, making it one of the most comprehensive news networks available today. It is worth mentioning that when AP launched this Mobile News Network on the 5th of May this year, only 107 news organizations were onboard. In other words, the network has had an incredible 786% growth, which is unprecedented to say the least.

3. While the mobile site www.apnews.com/mobile accounts for only 5% of the total traffic, a whopping 95% of the traffic for the network comes from Apple iPhone and iTouch. AP’s decision to optimize its news network for the iPhone proved to be extremely successful.

4. This news network has proved to be a great source for local news. More than a million local stories were read by mobile users during the month of August alone. In fact, local news is the second most widely read item in the network after top stories. California singlehandedly accounts for 20% of the total local content traffic.

5. According to statistics, mobile users access the network all through the day – right from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. The traffic on weekdays and weekends pretty much remains the same.

6. Each wireless user that accesses this network views 37 pages per month on an average.

7. The most accessed news items are – Top stories, local news, sports news, entertainment, and photos – in the same order.

I can think of two important reasons behind the success of AP’s Mobile News Network. First - AP’s decision to use the technology of Verve Wireless for the network and second - its decision to optimize its mobile news network for the iPhone. Verve Wireless’ patent pending technology has made AP’s Mobile News Network one of the easiest sites to access from a mobile phone. And by optimizing its network for the iPhone, AP has cashed in on the buzz of iPhone big time.

Overall, AP’s Mobile News Network is quite a success. With AP planning to expand its network by working closely with publishers, marketers, and news agencies, we can expect a huge surge in growth in the months to come.

Categories: All things mobile phones.

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Will newspapers go mobile?

Websites are trying to reinvent themselves by going mobile. Corporations are trying to reinvent themselves by going mobile. Advertisers are trying to reinvent themselves by going mobile. Banks are trying to reinvent themselves by going mobile. What’s next on the list? Newspapers, they say.

When you look at the current scenario, it looks like an obvious transition for newspapers. The circulation is declining by the day as people are more and more getting used to the content available on the internet and the mobile phone. In this case, newspapers hardly have a choice.

Fortunately, the bigwigs of the newspaper world have realized the need for this transition. Already, we have seen Associated Content launch its mobile portal and I have no doubt it will be followed by other news networks. The writing is on the wall. With 3.3 billion active users, mobile market is the biggest market there is. Realizing this, U.S. mobile carriers have invested an astonishing $40 billion to retool themselves according to the new mobile age.

Currently, more than 30% of mobile users surf the internet on their mobile phone. The number is rapidly rising as new mobile users these days mostly go for web enabled mobile phones. With this being the case, newspapers have to find a way to get into the mobile phone at any cost.

The newspaper, fortunately, is almost tailor made for a medium like mobile phone. The specialty of newspapers lies in their ability to provide local content, which is exactly what mobile users want. The more local your data is, the better it will be for the users, since most of them use their mobile phone to find out local information like weather, local events, and so on. So, the transition will be seamless, so to speak. When newspapers go mobile, it will also mean a huge opportunity for mobile advertisers to be able to display highly targeted ads along with the local news content.

What needs to be done – this everyone seems to know. When will it get done? That’s the question. Don’t you agree?

Categories: All things mobile phones, Mobile Web.

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